We’re writing this from July 2021 as England play Italy for Euros 2020… we’ll know by time we finish writing this entry what the outcome was if the game proves as sufficiently distracting as the first 13 minutes have been. Meanwhile let’s see what September, 1953 sounds like as go back to a time before England last bought football home.
The songs of September, 1953
Half a dozen new songs on the main pop charts this week, and yes, another version of “Crying in the Chapel” was in there:
“A Dear John Letter” – Jean Shepard / Ferlin Husky
“Allez-Vous-En” – Kay Starr
“C’est Si Bon” – Eartha Kitt
“Crying In The Chapel” – Darrell Glenn
“Crying In The Chapel” – Hilltoppers
“Crying In The Chapel” – June Valli
“Crying In The Chapel” – Orioles
“Crying In The Chapel” – Rex Allen
“Dragnet” – Ray Anthony
“Ebb Tide” – Frank Chacksfield
“Eh Cumpari” – Julius Larosa
“Gambler’s Guitar” – Rusty Draper
“Hey Joe” – Frankie Laine
“I See The Moon” – Mariners
“I’m Walking Behind You” – Eddie Fisher
“My Love My Love” – Joni James
“No Other Love” – Perry Como
“Oh!” – Pee Wee Hunt
“P.S. I Love You” – Hilltoppers
“Rags To Riches” – Tony Bennett
“Song From Moulin Rouge” – Percy Faith
“Vaya Con Dios” – Les Paul And Mary Ford
“With These Hands” – Eddie Fisher
“You You You” – Ames Brothers
Thinking it through, as the UK v Italy game plays on, this would have been an obvious week to include a UK top 10 but we make and listen to the chart on Saturdays normally so we’ve already missed the chance to do that. We have added a top 10 R&B chart from September instead:
You can listen to the full playlist on Youtube via this link or embedded below:
This month in history
An end of summer ’53 wedding for (at the time) U.S. Senator John Fitzgerald Kennedy and Jacqueline Lee Bouvier at St. Mary’s Church in Newport, Rhode Island. You can see some of it below:
Meanwhile, last year, at the University of Chicago, Eugene Aserinsky, Nathaniel Kleitman, and William C. Dement, discovered phases of rapid eye movement during sleep, and connected these to dreaming. Their article revealing this was was published on September 10, 1953. You can learn about the stages of sleep here:
What’d Sadie think?
It’s another whole month at the top for “Vaya Con Dios” – and repetition and crowd wisdom has done its trick and it’s now our favourite Les Paul track. I can’t help but thinking “Crying in the Chapel” is the real number one, as with all the versions adding up it must have sold out everything else by far.
The Hilltoppers version doesn’t do much to differentiate itself but we now love the tune so there we go.
“Ebb Tide” by Frank Chacksfield starts off with a recording of seagulls and goes on to be a nice instrumental ode to the ocean, which makes us look forward to Sadie’s first seaside holiday this month.
“Eh Cumpari” by Julius Larosa is a novelty song and Sadie’s favourite this month. We should probably worry about her allegiances to England there as the tune is based on a traditional Italian song.
“Hey Joe” is different sound from Frankie Laine, which seems to be because it was originally a country chart hit for Carl Smith – not our favourite of his.
“I See The Moon” by the Mariners is a nice tune with some spoken word interludes. Interestingly, the group were a rarity, having two white and two African American members. They formed during World War II, in 1942 and toured military bases til the end of the war.
The last track on the pop charts is a classic piece of crooning from Tony Bennett, “Rags To Riches” – very nice.
Meanwhile on the R&B charts we start with “Shake a Hand” by Faye Adams which is a beltin’ tune and was apparently much covered at the time (you can read more here).
Then we have the Orioles great version of “Crying in the chapel” – which has already crossed over onto the mainstream charts as we know.
A lot of loving in the R&B charts this month with “Good Lovin'” by the Clovers. But it seems that was too much for some ’50s sensibilities as we also have “Too much Lovin'” by the Five Royales. The former is our pick on both levels.
It was just a more polite time. As evidenced by the fact we have “Please Love Me” by B B King and “Please Don’t Leave me” by Fats Domino…. Don’t worry Fats we won’t leave you, this was our favourite pleading tune this month.
But don’t think the manners got in the way of the hard drinking because then we also have Amos Milburn’s “One Scotch, Once Bourbon, One Beer” – which is nice, but feels like it should have been bawdier.
We round out the charts with “Honey Hush” by Big Joe Turner which is a fun tune with a great sax piece and also nice, “Get it” by The (not Five) Royals.
Now go listen to the full playlist on Youtube via this link.
p.s. As for the result back in 2021…let’s stay here in 1953 shall we?